War declared on fly tippers as Burnley Council dishes out 103 fixed penalty notices to offenders in five months

From January to June the local authority issued 102 fixed penalty notices to offenders for dumping black bags filled with rubbish on back streets.

And the council has appealed for people to report any offenders to them.

A spokesman said: "You asked us to tackle fly tipping issues in your neighbourhood and we have.

"If there is a problem with fly tipping in your area, we want to know. With your help we can target problematic areas and issue offenders with fixed penalty notices."

In May this year the council defended its use of fixed penalty notices for fly tipping after research revealed it issued just 0.17% of fines compared to incidents in 2019/20.

Data produced by OnlineMortgageAdvisor.co.uk showed that Burnley issued just five fixed penalty notices out of 2,831 reported fly-tipping incidents - 0.17% of the total.

OnlineMortgageAdvisor.co.uk sourced the Government official fly-tipping incidents and actions 2019/20 data and focused on the percentage of incidents resulting in fixed penalty notices (FPN) specifically for fly-tipping.

Despite the low number of FPNs issued by Burnley Council in 2019/20, the figure still placed the council at 199th out of 316 local authorities across the country.

But the latest figures show that Burnley Council has stepped up its enforcement action.

A Burnley Council spokesman said: "From August, 2020 to May this year we issued 142 fixed penalty notices for fly tipping and household waste duty of care offences as a result of developing new strategies to tackle the issue of dumped rubbish within the borough.

"The council will investigate why waste has been found in an unauthorised place and then take the appropriate action that is allowed by national legislation.

"However, issuing a FPN isn't as simple as finding waste with a name or address within it. We have to have sufficient evidence to prove that a person has actually deposited the waste. This is where residents can help us tackle the problem and catch those responsible for spoiling our communities.

"The problem is caused by those responsible for the fly-tipping; we will always do what we can to catch them if possible."

People can report fly tipping, and provide much-needed evidence on who is responsible, online at www.burnley.gov.uk/flytipping, by emailing [email protected] or by phoning 01282 425011.

You can also report offenders on line at your.burnley.gov.uk/service/Flytip_Intelligence.